PPP Introduces Innovative Vehicle-to-Infrastructure Technology.

PPP introduced its latest innovation that assures better communication between vehicles and the roadway infrastructure at the 2017 ATSSA Expo New Products Rollout Event.

The LLG7 Vision System is designed to assist agencies in assessing the roadway pavement markings for automated and autonomous vehicle recognition.

Every year we lose over 30,000 fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers on our US roadways. 51% of these tragic crashes occur as a result of lane departures. For this reason, over 75 models of vehicles sold in the US have available lane departure warning systems and 35 models with active lane assistance which guides the vehicle back in the lane when unintentionally leaving it.

According to FHWA, major auto makers like General Motors have stated that pavement markings are “The most significant infrastructure elements needed to guide automated vehicles”. Therefore, it is incumbent upon agencies and the roadway safety industry to ensure that the pavement markings are seen and recognized by these automated systems.

“For decades we have concerned ourselves with the correlation between pavement markings visibility and roadway safety. Now we must consider not only human vision, but also machine vision.” says Greg Driskell, President of Professional Pavement Products. Currently, these automated systems are mostly provided through in-vehicle camera technology. But the most advanced systems and likely future automated and autonomous vehicles use or will use LiDAR. These LiDAR systems are significantly dependent upon infrared reflection. The LLG7 Vision System is the first retroreflectometer with the ability to simultaneously assess the pavement markings for both human and machine vision systems using LiDAR.

“We want to offer agencies a tool to ensure that their roadway infrastructure is ready for these automated systems as well as the autonomous vehicles of the future. The LLG7 Vision System does just that” says Driskell. By adding a second laser to the LLG7, it can now simultaneously provide the same impressive level of data for machine vision as it does for human vision.

The LLG7 Vision System meets the eligibility for 90% to 100% Highways Safety Improvement Program funding.
Collecting and analyzing data for the maintenance and improvement of pavement markings and doing so at highway speeds eliminating the need for work zones. Reducing traffic interruptions and increasing the safety for all those that use or work on the roadways.